Saturday, October 24, 2015

Long Range Thinking at TEDx Detroit

For the first timeI
attended a TEDx event, the one
held in Detroit and hosted by Charlie Wohlborg.Well done Charlie!

It was my partner’s idea to go.Gary Gabel had called me about it a couple months
ahead of time.Gary is great at these
types of things.Actually, I knew he had
presented at TEDx Detroit
previously.What I did not know was that
he was their very first presenter.Way
to go Gary!

This is a site and a blog about long range,
strategic thinking.There were some
incredible examples at the TEDx
conference in Detroit on October 8 this year. If you have not attended
one of these, the way it works is a presenter on some fresh topic will come out
on stage and tell you about a product, an idea, a concept; through a story, a
video, a display or some other way to get their point across.So over the course of a day you have a chance
to see a couple dozen cool ideas.

Among many great presentations and artists, here are the
ones that particularly struck me during the day:

·Paul Elio showed the Elio car, which will carry
two people and get 84 miles to a gallon, at a purchase cost of $6,800.It was rolled out onto the stage!

·Derek Sivers challenged our assumptions in a presentation
on how we are locked into our version of the world.An example of his demonstration is how
Japanese addresses are based on block numbers and the order of construction of
houses, not streets and sequential address numbers.Doctors in Japan are paid when their patients
are healthy, not when they are sick.When you are sick, they have failed at their job.

·A great talk by Amer Zahr, about life as an Arab
American, the bias Arab Americans encounter, how he loves America, but many
times America does not love Arab Americans.

·Cathy Olkin talking about the NASA mission to
Pluto and showing Pluto’s heart.

·Karen Buscemi presenting how Detroit is
competing to become a fashion center.

·Mallory Brown, who I personally know and who is
making a difference around the world, made a powerful presentation on how a
personal connection to social causes gives donors meaning and how she is doing
this around the world.